Behind the record temperatures was a dome of high pressure over the center of the country, which combined with a powerful drought to create the scorching temperatures, said Jake Crouch, a climate scientist at [the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s] National Climatic Data Center in Asheville, N.C.

As Media Matters noted last week, the Journal has been downplaying threats to the environment since 1976. And while bad habits are hard to break, the paper’s squirming attempts to downplay climate change have a distinct look-out-there’s-something-behind-you! vibe, making them kind of amusing in a morbid way. It’s like a shopkeeper who is caught in a deceit but refuses to admit it.A play in one act. The part of the NOAA will be played by John Cleese; the Journal, by Michael Palin.